The famous reports of the Habsburg envoy Herberstein, the Schleswig-Holstein embassy secretary Olearius, the envoy of the Electorate of Hanover and the British Crown Weber, as well as the agricultural expert Haxthausen, who worked in Prussian and Russian services, were published around the middle of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. They were considered classics of Russian studies in their time and have remained so ever since, marking the beginning of the modern era as established by Herberstein, as well as the profession of diplomacy. Likewise, these reports, fundamentally designed as cultural historiography, are stimulating for comparative cultural historical studies of Eastern Europe, specifically Russia, both in a comprehensive cultural scientific sense and in a methodological way.